Turn Off Notifications - How I Ended Up With Quiet Devices

 

 

    One of the hardest things for a lover of technology to come to grips with is the possibly that there may be certain aspects of technology that may not be as beneficial as once perceived. Or, worse yet, that these aspects may in fact be detrimental. Bummer....

   During the mobile coming of age, one key element that developers and users alike agreed upon was productivity. This would require having instant-on, up to the minute information - primarily in relation to productivity's foundation of communication known as email. Add to that a calendar for appointments and reminders (which I personally rely on heavily), and the current world leading form of communication known as texting, productivity literally demands constant notification.

   Then came a new form of interaction known as social media. With it, the world has become an increasingly smaller place. No longer are people required to leave the comfort of their own homes to "meet" new and interesting people - from around the corner to the other side of the globe. People share as much, and as little, about themselves as they wish, whether true or make-believe. With social media came a need for a new form of productivity - being socially productive: being always up-to-date with every response to every post, sharing pictures and news links, and being on top of the latest social media trend. Again came another demand for constant notification.

   With our mobile devices we have our mobile forms of entertainment - from games, to books, to TV shows and movies - all in the form of neatly packed glowing digital squares known as apps. These bring their own need for notifications as well - stay connected with friends playing the same games and challenge their scores, receive new episode information regarding a favorite TV show, being alerted about a new eBook or movie release. Yes, yet more notifications.

   As a nerd, the fact that these types of notifications can be accomplished in an overall basic and efficient manner on such small devices is nothing short of amazing to me to this day. But then came the downside(s) to it all.

   What first started off my notification-lees lifestyle actually had nothing to do with the actual number of notifications I was receiving. It actually had to do with my once favorite cell phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Launched originally as the flagship for the Nexus line, this phone had one extremely bad flaw - extremely pathetic battery life. The best way to to squeeze out at least a halfway decent day of usage on the Galaxy Nexus was to download and install a "battery saver" app and disable notifications on basically every app installed on the phone because, for those of you who may not know (especially you Android users), notifications adversely affect battery life.

   And my phone was quiet. At the time I felt it was too quiet, so I found myself checking my social media apps for new posts, checking email, etc. Looking back on it now, I really had no logical reason to do so. Sad to admit it, but I was basically brainwashed into to thinking that I just had to.

   Today, I no longer own the Galaxy Nexus. I no longer worry about battery life. However, I still keep notifications turned off for all my most used apps / tools. Why? For a few simple reasons:

1. My social media engagement isn't even half of what it used to be. I keep my personal Facebook profile for what I believe is the most important reason anyone should: for sharing pictures and family updates with friends and relatives. I don't tend to engage in "conversations" there as much as I used to, but I still believe it's an excellent platform for simply "staying in touch". I do engage more in Google +, but I feel I get more direct engagement and content about my favorite nerd stuff there. As for Twitter - I was never a heavy user as it were, so having no notifications from there really had zero impact.

2. As for email - not really sure why I thought I ever needed email notifications in the first place to be honest. I've never really been in a situation where I was so eagerly awaiting an email that I just had to know the very instant when it arrived. In fact, from a common sense standpoint, I look at it this way - did I ever in my life hang around my mailbox at home waiting for mail to come, that I had to know arrived as soon as it got there? No. So I made to conscious decision that I check email only at a certain time in the day. If I'm expecting something from someone, I usually know anyway - they tell me they are sending something.

3. I do keep one notification active - my calendar. In my opinion, this is really the only important notification on my devices. From appointments, to meetings, birthdays and other events - my calendar is probably the most important tool on my devices.

   But above and beyond those reasons, the most important reason why I stopped being a slave to notifications is because I am a husband and a father. Over the years I've seen how the "cell phone evolution" has made much of the public become heads-down day walkers, with me being among them as well. And watching movies like Her (which I loved and highly recommend) helped hammer-home the point:

  I don't want my children's main memory of me being that of my head buried in a mobile device

   And with all these notifications turned off, guess what I've found? I am no less informed, up-to-date, or otherwise "connected" than I was with them all enabled. Don't worry - I still love all things tech. I'm still a Nerd through and through. But I'm far less distracted by countless notifications. 

 

Safe At Home - Simple Solutions For Online Family Safety Part 1

   A few months ago, I was invited to participate at a Families & Technology seminar.The goal of the seminar was to help families with the sometimes daunting task of keeping all members of the family safe online.

   I was happy to hear the seminar hosts hammer home a couple key points that I always try to convey to those who ask me for help with their home networks -

1. Take ownership and learn - don't be fearful of the internet and technology in general.
2. Don't waste your time telling you kids what they're "not allowed to do" while online.

   Those 2 key points withstanding, one of the first things I tell parents is never let your teen set up your home network. Sure, there was a time when setting up a router all but required a Network Engineering degree, but those days are long gone with today's super-simple router user interfaces (more on that in Part 2).

   But if you already have your network setup, and don't want to be a "helicopter parent" while your kiddos are online, there is simple, very effective, and FREE tool you can use on the front line of your network. Nerds the world over like myself have been personally using and suggesting to others the cloud-delivered internet security network OpenDNS for years. So for those of my fellow Nerds who fit into that camp, this post will be of little benefit to you. But for those who may be unaware, OpenDNS is a must-have in my book when it comes to effective online safety and security without completely bogging your network down with Fort Knox - type overkill.

   Without going into a mind boggling, tech - heavy explanation, I'll give a quick and commonly used analogy for what DNS is (it was the same analogy my professor used in my Cisco lab while pursuing my Network Engineering degree):

  DNS stands for Domain Name System. Think of it as serving as the phone book for the internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, the domain name www.example.com translates into the IP address 93.184.216.119 (IPv4). and 2606:2800:220:6d:26bf:1447:1097:aa7  (IPv6). Unlike a phone book, the DNS can be quickly updated, allowing a service's location on the network to change without affecting the end users, who continue to use the same host name. Users take advantage of this when they use URLs and email addresses without having to know how the computer actually locates the services.

   With that basic definition in mind, think of OpenDNS as your "phone book customization service", in that you can tell it what content of the "phone book" you do and do not want delivered to your location. Setup is fairly simple - the only thing that may be of any difficulty is knowing how to log into your router and enter the DNS address that OpenDNS will provide to you (again - more about that in Part 2). Once you've created your OpenDNS account and entered your provided DNS address, you will have access to your very own network dashboard with which you can set your security level and check valuable statistics about your network.

   As you can see, I personally choose to use the Custom settings. You may want to choose some of the preset levels here - it all depends on what you feel would work best for your family!

   And as mentioned, the Stats screen offers a wealth of information about activity on your network.

   You may note that I haven't gone into great detail about setting this up. Why? The folks at OpenDNS have truly made the process so pain-free that it's literally a waste of time for me to explain it here. Simply sign up, log in, and follow the on screen prompts (there are only a few!). 

   There are a few options available, including a Home VIP service for $19.95/yr, though I've found the Free service to be flawless! And for you business owners, there are business services available as well.

   When it comes to worry-free solutions for keeping your family safe online, I highly recommend OpenDNS as your first line of defense!